Apex – Column Linking with data that includes commas

You want to define a link between one page an another via a report column. Everything works great until you try a link where the source column value includes a comma, like:

Smith, Fred, A.

Then the link doesn’t work!

I found the answer in the Oracle Apex forum. This is documented in the 3.0 User Guide under itemValues as:

To pass a comma in an item value, enclose the characters
with backslashes. For example:
\123,45\

You need to put ‘\’ (backslash, not slash) on both sides of the column value you’re passing, simple as that. You don’t need to change the query on the receiving end at all.
Forum user Chet Justice even wrote up a sample query:

SELECT my_column_with_commas, –use this one to display
‘\’ || my_column_with_commas || ‘\’ my_commas –user this one for the link
FROM table_with_columns_of_commas;

Then change your column link to pass the my_commas value.

Piece of cake, once you know!